Even if you filter all email into a "trusted trio" of folders or rely on Gmail's smart priority inbox feature, you might still have an overwhelming number of emails requiring your attention. To be more productive, focus on the "Wheelhouse" emails.

Megan Morris writes on the Productive Flourishing blog that after doing email triage, two categories of emails were left: Wheelhouse emails, which Morris says "were associated with tasks that I knew I could do better than anyone else on the planet," and peripheral emails—all the other stuff, "items that I knew took me a little more time, or weren't my most efficient or preferred territory."

Prioritizing important emails this way, with more focus on and immediate attention to Wheelhouse emails, can help you make the best use of your time and more of a difference in the world, perhaps. After dealing with the "highest leverage items," come back to the peripheral ones.